Restoring antique and vintage woodworking equipment. Like pre-1920's if possible. There are no manuals, most of the companies are out of business, and there are very few resources available. There are websites like oldwoodworkingmachines and oldwoodworkersforum but, mostly it's trial and error. It requires a super keen eye for detail, and when you're missing parts you have to be really good at deductive reasoning.
One of my proudest moments was when I completely restored a hand-cranked drill press for a family. They had memories of their grandpa using it to build the family home. It was amazing to watch their faces as I showed them the bright brass and walnut it would've originally been decorated with. When I started it was a box of parts that were mostly just scrap cast-iron. I had to learn how to sand cast to re-make pieces!
I've posted about it elsewhere on here, but right now I'm restoring a 24" J.T. Towsley jointer. I'll be done in the next week or two, and can't wait to run some lumber through it. (that being said, I will have to sell it to pay for some medical bills, if anyone is interested in it). I learned on this site that the editor of popular woodworking is actually doing that right now as well. I reached out to him, and was able to provide some technical drawings for a bearing block that his was missing. So that was neat.
That's probably what i like the most about that community - it's an actual community. I was restoring a 60's PowerMatic drill press for a neighbor, and posted about the original column length, since the one I had was converted to a tabletop. One of the guys on the old machines forum actually PM'd me, and drove to my house to give me one! It was amazing.
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